Archive for Toyota Prius

So this is what my wife and I have been reduced to on the road. My wife’s car, a Ford Escort bought back in 1999, has well over 200,000 miles on it. The engine was replaced a couple of years ago on the relative cheap, and while the vehicle is still running well enough — for now — it’s evident that this car is on borrowed time. My own car, a 1996 Ford Mustang, has only a little more than 73,000 miles showing on its dashboard — of course, that’s more a result of a broken odometer than it is a lack of use.

Which all means that it’s finally time for us to buy a new car. With my wife driving an hour to work every day, and with gas prices continuing to rise to obscene levels, fuel economy is probably going to be the number one priority when we choose our new vehicle. With that in mind, we have some choices that have come immediately to the forefront at we begin our search.

Chevrolet Cruze Eco

The Chevrolet Cruze Eco would be our first choice if we had to make it today, though it’s no slam dunk. What we like about the car is the outstanding gas mileage (42 mpg on the highway), its top-ranked safety ratings, and the good reviews we’ve read on it. Plus, my wife likes the way it looks. Also on the radar is the Ford Fusion, which gives us a couple of options itself (the S version which gets slightly better mileage than what my wife’s current car does, or the Hybrid which gets even better). And then there’s the Toyota Prius, which get the best mileage of all of them — but which has been described in some reviews I’ve read as handling like a “toaster” on the road.

We’re not locked into just these options, but they seem to be the best candidates so far. So who out there has some suggestions for me? Chime in with your opinions in the comments about these three options as well as any suggestions you might have.